Cardinals prove a point by beating Bears in MVC wrestling

BRODHEADSVILLE — Pocono Mountain East has been waiting for this kind of victory for a long time.

MIKE KUHNS

BRODHEADSVILLE — Pocono Mountain East has been waiting for this kind of victory for a long time.

Celso Clemente pulled off a big upset at 220 pounds as the Cardinals handed Pleasant Valley their first conference loss of the season, 39-24, Wednesday night at Pleasant Valley.

The victory left Stroudsburg as the last remaining unbeaten in the Mountain Valley Conference, but the Mounties still have a meeting against the Bears later this season.

For the Cardinals, Wednesday's victory over PV was not a huge shocker. They lost to Stroudsburg by single digits twice this year, but haven't ever beaten the Bears under coach Chris Potter and not since the 1990s.

Until now.

"We knew we had a good team this year," Potter said of his 14-2 Cardinals. "It's about coming together and doing the little things. We didn't give up the big decisions, we kept it close and we got our bonus where we had to and I'm proud of them.

"In the beginning of the year, and I don't like talking garbage, but I thought we were the best team in the league. I still think that. I know we didn't prove that against Stroudsburg, but I still think that."

This is clearly Potter's best team in his tenure. He has two state-caliber athletes in Ray Nicosia (152 pounds) — a state medalist in 2012 — and Joey Fogle (182), who has just one loss this year.

Their leadership has provided an anchor for a program, which took a step toward at least sharing a part of the MVC title this year. Of course PM East would need PV to knock off Stroudsburg later this year.

"Anytime you have two guys, one state qualifier, a state sixth-place finisher, and another guy knocking on the door leading by example," Potter said of his seniors Nicosia and Fogle. "They got there for a reason, hard work, constantly striving to get better."

It was Clemente's 3-2 victory over Dominick Ammirato that cemented things against the Bears. Trailing 2-0, Clemente was given a penalty point on a full nelson with 18 seconds to wrestle. On the restart, Clemente earned a reversal with nine seconds to go and rode Ammirato the rest of the way for a 3-2 win.

"He turned it on with 15 seconds left," Potter said. "He ended up getting that reversal and hanging on."

Things didn't go PV's way a few times as they were crushed with a pair of injuries. Josh Perry injured his leg at 152 and was forced to forfeit, which gave the Cardinals a 15-10 lead after six bouts. Later in the night, PV's Jason Jacobi was also forced to forfeit, trailing Josh Stoner 7-0 in the third period at 106.

In an anticipated close bout at 285, PV's Mike Benner rode out Jeremy Candelario to win, 4-3.